A Poppy Story

Sometimes you just have to connect the dots. I've been walking around with a couple of ideas in the back of my mind, but I hadn't really done anything with it. As a result the end product was still somewhere trapped in my brain.

As you know I have been making paper lately. That was step 1. I figured out how to add flower seeds. That was step 2. I had already thought about how to make the 'grow-a-card' thing more logical. I have bought cards with flower seeds before and I have sent them to friends, but none of them wanted to actually put it in the soil. Because then you may have some flowers, but you have to destroy the card. So I thought I would fold it in three, so you can cut the 'extra paper' off: still being able to sow the seeds, without having to destroy the card and the text on it. That was step 3.

So now I had the paper I wanted and I had the shape of the card. I wanted to send my friend my first handmade paper with flower seeds, so she could test it. That's when I came up with the text that should be on it. "I look like a card, but I'm really a hug (and flowers, too!)" Because a handwritten card is really not just a piece of paper, is it? Step 4, I guess..

But still I wanted more than just text. Since I used common poppy seeds, I wanted to illustrate that. Somehow I couldn't get myself to sit down and start on it, until today. My collegue Marieke inspired me yesterday with an incredibly cool project she has been working on (check it out at Mariekjen.nl). She made a lino cut selfie by reducing the lino for every layer ending up with a portrait in 3 colors. The result is gorgeous!

So, I wanted a poppy. I thought I would give the lino a try. But... reducing for every layer means you can only make a limited amount of prints and you can make no mistakes. As soon as you start on the second layer, you are cutting away your first layer. That was a little too risky for me and I need more than a few prints. I decided to just take a new piece of lino for every layer, so I could try and fail as much as I want.

You can see the lino on the left. The original print is the one on top. I scanned the image to adjust the contrast and the colors a little. I drew a tiny line around it and added the text for the front and the instructions on the paper that is folded into the card and can be cut out. So step 5 was quite a big one, but I think it turned out quite nice. I wish I could make more, but first I need to make some extra poppy-seed paper. I have ruined a few perfectly nice pieces with this experiment. Well, so be it. Once I have more than just this prototype, you can find them in the Stoffer + Blik shop!